Movie Review: Monkey Man

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1WsEkRNcKtvc5kqSTvCFhc

Maybe it was just me but my expectations for Monkey Man were through the roof going into this screening. That's not to say that the movie did not live up to them, just that this is not the second coming of John Wick as I had seen it hailed. That said, Dev Patel's directorial debut is still among some of the best action films of the last decade and, while it is unlikely to unseat the likes of John Wick or The Raid from my personal favorites, the way that the film interweaves a deeply personal revenge story with more macro concepts like corruption and ultra-nationalism is incredibly engaging. The action sequences (especially the fight sequences in the third act) are among some of the best put to film. That said, some of the fights in the arena do not reach the excitement levels of Creed or Creed III but they are still very well shot.

★★★★★